FROM ROMANESQUE TO MODERNISM

Its 23 temples in the municipality and 14 churches in the historic town centre have converted it into the city with the most number and best quality of Romanesque churches in Europe. All this has merited it the name “City of Romanesque”. The Cathedral, dating back to the twelve century, is most representative of the Zamora’s monuments. One of the most important in Spain and icon of Zamora Romanesque. Famous for its dome with four-corner turrets and for its collection of Flemish tapestries. A collection open to the public noted particularly for its fine exhibition "Cathedral Tapestries".

Close to this, visitors cannot fail to see the Iglesia de San Claudio de Olivares, the Iglesia de San Pedro y San Ildefonso, the Iglesia de la Magdalena, Santa María la Nueva and San Cipriano among many others, but Zamora is not just Romanesque. The city, with a total of 19 buildings, contains the most representative collection of modernist architecture in the whole of Castilla y León, as a result of which it has been included in the European Route of Modernism that embraces 58 cities and 49 institutions from all over the world. Romanesque and Modernism meet together in Zamora, converting it into a heterogeneous and eclectic destination of heritage to be discovered by its visitors after a pleasant stroll through its streets.

CASTLE OF ZAMORA AND BALTASAR LOBO MUSEUM, PERFECT COMMUNICATION OF HISTORY AND ART

After completing the long restoration work and recovering its defence structures, Zamora has now opened its coveted Castle to the public. Here is a place, faithful witness of its history, where you can rest, browse around inside, trace your steps back to the past, to the outside and future of the city. After undergoing its extensive reform work, the entire structure can now be visited, even the crenellations, that form an imposing vantage point from where we can view the Cathedral, the river and a hitherto unheard of and spectacular city, worthy of consideration. An important historic testimony that is completed with a glance through art by the hand of the Zamora sculptor Baltasar Lobo, one of the best 20th century sculptors, found in the Casa de los Gigantes. The complex formed by the Castle and the Museo Baltasar Lobo are one of the city's most important tourist tokens. Figures alone speak of its success. In the first month since its opening it has received more than 100,000 visitors from all over the world.

CENTRE OF INTERPRETATION OF THE MEDIEVAL CITIES AND ACEÑAS DE OLIVARES, THE DUERO, PRESENT AT EACH CORNER OF THE CITY

The Duero River dominates the city and is becoming the tourist benchmark and icon of Zamora. The recovery of the Aceñas de Olivares, over the river Duero, and inauguration of the Centro de Interpretación de las Ciudades Medievales, (Centre of Interpretation of Medieval Cities) with its “Mirador Zen”, vantage point between the banks of the Duero and the city, are a good example of this. The conversion of the Aceñas into a tourist product has not only meant recovering its architectures, the three water mills, and stations, the steam hammer, the fulling hammer and the flour mill, that in themselves are well worth a visit, but also the possibility for visitors and inhabitants to live a singular “experience" on the Duero. The “Mirador Zen” of the Centro de Interpretación de las Ciudades Medievales is a place inciting quietness, meditation, listening and understanding the medieval and present-day relation between river and city. Two products directly related with the river and city that have attracted thousands of visitors from all over the world ever since they were officially opened.

A UNIQUE HOLY WEEK

Declared International Tourist Interest, this is one of the most emotional and moving events in Spain. The paradigm of Castilian religiousness. These are days when the city undergoes a radical change, brimming with visitors, increasing its population fivefold. Seventeen cofradías that hold processions from the Easter Friday, Viernes de Dolores, until Easter Sunday, Domingo de Resurrección, pace the streets of Zamora. Special moments that no visitor can miss are the Oath of Silence when the lady mayor offers the city silence, presided by the Santísimo Cristo de las Injurias, the austerity of the procession of the “Capas pardas” and the chant of the Miserere at the procession of the Yacente, among many others.

ZAMORA, SCENE OF ART AND CULTURE ALL THE YEAR ROUND

Zamora offers its visitors an exhaustive program of artistic activities and cultural events all the year round. With its 19th Art Biennial, Zamora has become a benchmark of avant-garde national and international art. With a new concept that stretches beyond the specific exhibitions, the biennial has become a meeting place for all kinds of cultural movements and activities linked with cutting edge artistic phenomena. A movement where all kinds of artistic expressions have found a place, and which has concluded with an innovating video-creation festival, “Zoom In”.

The programming of activities “Días y Noches de Zamora, Verano 2009”, carried out by the Zamora Town Hall, has ended with a balance of over 25,000 spectators. A quality cultural and tourist proposal that has been composed of three core actions. II Festival de Jazz Ciudad de Zamora “Noches de Viriato”. 8,000 participants confirm the quality and prestige of this festival that first opened in 2008. Its interpretative illumination has converted the city’s Plaza de Viriato into a magical spot.

The I Festival Músicas del Mundo “Son Zamora”, that has reported more than 10,000 participants has proved a novelty in terms of content and location, taking all kinds of sounds from all over the world to the atrium of the Cathedral. Lastly “Cerco de Zamora” según el Romancero. Theatre performances held at historic places in the city that have reported an attendance of more than 7,000 visitors this summer.

All this, added to the variety of museums, the programming of the Teatro Principal traditionally known as “La Bombonera” for its small dimensions, and the Festival de Fados de Castilla y León, are many of the cultural offers provided to its visitors